Chapter 3

3

Hearing the girl's heart-wrenching cries, I felt a wave of panic.

"Sweetie, stay calm. Tell me what's happening!"

The girl was clearly terrified. She couldn't even answer my questions.

She just kept crying louder and louder.

No matter how much I tried to soothe her, she couldn't hear me.

According to the dispatch center, the patient had a sudden onset of symptoms.

For the elderly, it was usually a stroke or a heart attack.

Every minute mattered. Delaying could be fatal.

I told her not to hang up and started digging through my bag.

Mia leaned over, looking confused.

"You're actually going to pay them? They're just thugs. Why should we give them two hundred for this crappy road?"

I shook my head.

"Our job is to save lives. If something happens to that woman, the family will blame us, not these locals."

Mia went quiet for a moment.

She pulled a hundred-dollar bill out of her wallet and pressed it into my hand.

"We'll split it. Let's just get this over with!"

We shared a bitter look, and I handed the money out the window.

Mia yelled out, "Take the money and move! We have a job to do!"

I told the girl on the phone that we'd be there in ten minutes.

But the old woman took the money and didn't budge.

The others spread out, surrounding the ambulance so we couldn't move forward or backward.

"What are you doing? I paid the money! Are you going back on your word?" I screamed.

The woman who took the cash smirked.

"I got my money, but my friends here haven't. Two hundred isn't enough for all five of us."

I felt like I was going to faint from rage.

The fee had suddenly jumped from a flat rate to a per-person charge.

"Are you kidding me? Two hundred wasn't enough? You want a thousand dollars now?"

Mia couldn't take it anymore.

She jumped out of the ambulance and rolled up her sleeves.

"You want money? How about I pay you in medical bills after I kick your teeth in!"